''GURPS Witch World'' is a supplement published by

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

in 1989 for use with the ''

GURPS The ''Generic Universal Role Playing System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system published by Steve Jackson Games. The system is designed to run any genre using the same core mechanics. The core rules were first written by St ...

'' {''Generic Universal Role-Playing System'') game rules that describes how to set a role-playing campaign in

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen na ...

's ''

Witch World Witch World is a speculative fiction project of American writer Andre Norton, inaugurated by her 1963 novel '' Witch World'' and continuing more than four decades. Beginning in the mid-1980s, when she was about 75 years old, Norton recruited oth ...

''.

''GURPS Witch World'' is a ''

'' supplement and

campaign setting A campaign setting is a setting for a tabletop role-playing game or wargame campaign. Most campaign settings are fictional worlds; however, some are historical or contemporary real-world locations. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adve ...

describing play in

's fantastic ''

''. The book includes a history of the world, a guide and maps to its various lands,

character creation Character creation (also character generation / character design) is the process of defining a player character in a role-playing game. The result of character creation is a characterization, direct characterization that is recorded on a charac ...

rules, Witch World magic and psionics, magic items, and creatures. It covers both the western and eastern continents where the book stories had taken place. The book is divided into eight chapters and an appendix, covering the history, geography, the creation of GURPS characters, and the system of color-based magic used in those lands. It also gives a description of various magic items; psionic abilities; the use and properties of herbs, and a bestiary of Witch World creatures, most of which were mentioned in Andre Norton's books. The appendix gives details of the main characters from the books, and a bibliography of the Witch World novels. The ''Witch World'' setting includes several different non-human races which were detailed in the novels. These are fully detailed in the book, as well as several NPC races that are not suitable for

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

s. The various human cultures and peoples are also detailed, along with their general characteristics and skills. An example of the non-human races is the Old Race, a telepathically gifted people with strong wills who did not grow old until they reached 400 years of age. The magic system of Witch World divides the spells into colors, rather than using the system of colleges as in the standard GURPS Magic system. The cultural bias of this world setting only allows females to receive magic instructions. Males can also possess magical aptitude, but they find it difficult to receive instruction in the arts. Characters can be trained in spells from multiple different colors of magic. The colors correspond to the GURPS Magic spells as follows: *Red — Healing, restoring strength, war, and fire. *Orange — Move, break, and repair objects; teleport,

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

, and gate between worlds. *Yellow — Illusion, telepathy, and thought control. *Green — Earth and nature. *Blue — Emotions and foretelling. *Indigo — Air and water. *Purple — Control and enslave the minds of others. *Violet — Summon spirits, demons, and other beings; detect, control, and resist spells. *Brown — Beasts and animals. The force of evil in this setting is known as the Shadow, and various unsavory creatures are allied with this aspect. These are detailed in the bestiary, along with unique animals and plants found on the Witch World. The only other book required to use this supplement is the ''

GURPS Basic Set ''GURPS Basic Set'' is a role playing game publication written by Steve Jackson, Sean M. Punch, and David L. Pulver. The first edition ''GURPS Basic Set'' box was published in 1986, a standalone third edition book in 1988, and a hardcover, two ...

'' (3rd edition), although '' GURPS Magic'' is recommended.

Publication history

''GURPS Witch World: Roleplaying in Andre Norton's Witch World'' was written by

Sasha Miller Sasha Miller is the pseudonym of American fantasy writer Georgia Myrle Miller (born October 15, 1933 in Erick, Oklahoma). She has also written under the names Georgia Sallaska, Myrle Benedict, and G. S. Madden. In 1958 and 1959 she published a ...

and Ben W. Miller, and was published by

in 1989 as a 128-page book. The book features a color-illustrated stiff paper jacket and black-and-white interior illustrations. In his 2011 book ''Designers & Dragons'', games historian Shannon Appelcline noted that ''GURPS Witch World'' was one of the earliest licensed properties produced by Steve Jackson Games.

Reception

In the June 1989 edition of ''

Games International ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' (Issue 6), James Wallis thought that the book had done a good job of interpreting the ''Witch World'' series, commenting, "authority and knowledgebility are apparent throughout." He concluded by giving this book an above-average rating of 4 out of 5, saying, "Fans of ''Witch World'' should certainly buy this book. Avid devourers of fantasy fiction would probably also find it appealing."

References

External links

* {{cite web , url=http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/witchworld/ , title=GURPS Witch World , publisher=Steve Jackson Games , accessdate=2006-08-10 Fantasy role-playing games Witch World, GURPS Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1989 Role-playing games based on novels

Contents

Publication history

Reception

References

External links